This blog deals in all kinds of developments specially political in the biggest state of India. The content is produced by Dilip Awasthi, one of the senior most journalists of Uttar Pradesh. He has worked for some of the premier publications and television channels of India.

Friday, February 17, 2017

This Picture is discomforting

by Dilip Awasthi

Most people even BJP and BSP leaders ask if UP chief minister Akhilesh Yadav was so confident about his government's achievements why did he opt for an alliance with Congress and Rahul Gandhi? In 2017 when UP is going to elect its new government, a pre-poll alliance with a party like Congress which just got 28 seats in 2012 assembly electionsfor 11% votes and was wiped off by the Modi wave in the Lok Sabha elections 2014, would obviously puzzle anybody.

Voters in UP might not be as perplexed by this combination as leaders of the rival parties and also Akhilesh's father Mulayam Singh. Akhilesh himself smiles and äsks,"If it is a "nothing"alliance why is everybody (politicians) so concerned ?". True and if eyebrows are being raised by none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi, then the question mark facing this alliance needs to be answered.

In his couple of rallies in Kannauj and Barabanki earlier this week, Modi played up the issue of this "opportunistic"alliance. He devoted a significant part of his speeches to underline that Akhilesh had tied up with the party which organised a "life threatening"attack on his father Mulayam Singh. Modi went on to elaborate that the Congress Party was behind the attack on Mulayam Singh in 1984. "Then Atalji and Chowdhry Charan Singh had come to Mulayam Singh's rescue by ensuring his security". Actually Akhilesh is still a novice in politics, Modi went on, and he will only play in the hands of Congress till it wants. Then it will dump him. "Seasoned politician Mulayam Singh is very upset with this alliance", Modi said.

Either Modi did not check his facts or deliberately chose to conceal the latter part of the story. True that in March, 1984 Mulayam;s vehicle was sprayed with bullets in Mykhera village of Mainpuri, his happy hunting ground and constituency. Mulayam had lodged an FIR naming a strong Congress Minister late Balram Singh Yadav behind the conspiracy. Trues that Atal Behari Vajpai and Chowdhry Charan Singh were instrumental in getting Z category security for Mulayam after this incident.

Now comes the interesting part of the story. The then chief minister Beer Bahadur Singh had ordered the Home Department to inquire into the case. After around three months of investigation, the Home Department released its findings that the attack in which Mulayam Singh did not sustain any injury was staged-managed to get z category security which the politician had been demanding from the government for sometime and his requests were turned down on two occasions. Several other details were provided to substantiate the findings which were reported by me (in The Times of India) and my friend and senior Gyanendra Sharma (in Navbharat Times).

Akhilesh reacting to Modi's speeches about the alliance, said that he is just trying to create a misunderstanding between me and my father but would surely not succeed. Coming back to the question why Akhilesh went for this alliance and more interestingly why are rivals including PM Modi so concerned would call for another blog. Wait till tomorrow....

About Me

Has been a journalist working in Uttar Pradesh for the last 38 years. He has worked with top publications including India Today, The Times of India, Dainik Jagran.
He has had the opportunity to work with some of the top editors of the country like Aroon Purie, Girilal Jain, Inder Malhotra, Suman Dubey, T.N. Ninan, Inderjit Badhwar, SN Ghosh to name a few.
He has covered the top politicians of the country including Indira Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, VP Singh, Chandrashekhar, Atal Behari Vajpai, Narayan Datt Tiwari, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Kanshi Ram, Mayawati, Kalyan Singh. He has reported the Ayodhya tangle since it started in 1984 and covered the demolition of the Babri mosque in 1992 for India Today magazine. He has also covered journalistic assignments in the United States, United Kingdom, Japan, Belgium, Turkey, Mauritius, China, Sri Lanka and Nepal. He has two books under my belt - one on journalism titled "The Special Correspondent", and a collection of satires in Hindi called "Kyunki Ye Dil Hai Hindustani".